Friday Afternoon at the Temple of the Giant Buddha

Today, instead of my normal half day, I met my supervisor, Kagawa-san at the station at 10 and we went to Nara for the Mid-Year CIR Opinion Exchange Conference. I tend to dread these things for at least 2 weeks before I have to go and then find that I wasted all my time worrying and actually learn something from them… (sounds like my M.O. right?). This training session was no different. I dreaded it and dreaded it, but then actually enjoyed it.

You see, I lack one distinct quality that most other CIRs have in spades….confidence in my Japanese ability. When CIRs get together it is like one big giant pissing contest.

“I translated this for the Governor of Such and Such”

“Well, I had to interpret for the King of La la land”

“My supervisors don’t correct my Japanese, I correct theirs….”

You get the idea. (can you tell I enjoy hyperbole a bit?). Anyway, I usually find myself annoyed with most CIRs til I find some of the normal ones.

Back to the beginning. I met Kagawa-san at Kameoka station at about 10 am. Now, we sit next to each other every single day, but I don’t know that much about him. What with him being very very quiet and shy, and me being quiet and shy in my Japanese office (bet you can’t picture that…), we don’t actually converse that much. He’s a sweetheart but I find it difficult to start conversations sometimes at work (outside of the office I am a chatterbox), and his shyness makes him less likely to start the conversation too. However, our 2 hours traveling together made a huge difference I think. We were both able to ask each other questions and have a good time I think.

We talked about how he grew up in Kameoka and how I am visiting his old elementary school next Friday. We talked about my parents visiting soon and what I plan to do with them, and how surprised he was at how much travel I have done in Japan (this was my 3rd trip to Nara and his first….even though he has lived 2 hours away his entire life).

Since it was his first time to Nara and we were getting in a few hours early, I suggested that we go sightseeing. It turns out that our meeting site was just a few feet from Todaiji (the temple in Japan with the largest Buddha statue in the world).

We had to take the Kintetsu Line rather than JR (which I am used to) because it was cheaper and the office was paying for the trip, so I wasn’t 100% sure how to get to Todaiji from the Kintetsu station. We walked around a little til we found the right bus. He actually seemed excited about going (I dunno if I’ve mentioned it before, but I have had a little trouble determining what it is that my supervisor actually likes……)

As we were waiting, I realized I should warn him about the deer. He can be a bit skittish, or at least he always seems to be a bit nervous about animals…so I figured I should mention the deer. I felt certain he would know of them (I knew of them before I ever went to Nara but apparently not all Japanese people know that Nara is famous for the crazy deer).

So I casually look over at him and say

Me: “Are you ok with deer?”

Kagawa: “Deer meat is ok, yeah.”

Me: “No no, live deer?”

Kagawa: “Oh….why?”

Me: “Well they are all over the place at Todaiji. They come right up to you and will eat out of your hand.”

Kagawa: “Really? That’s really scary.”

Me: “No they’re really calm don’t worry. One once came up and ate a ticket out of my purse.”

Kagawa: “Watch your wallet, you don’t want them to eat that…you’d have to start all over again.”

Ha, he’ll never let me forget about my wallet again. Then he told me I should have waited to buy a new one in Korea next weekend.

Well, scared or not, I was not letting him get out the main experience of Nara: the deer. So as we walked down the path to Todaiji I pointed out the vendors selling rice crackers for the deer. Apparently that was enough. He went to buy the crackers but the hungry deer (conditioned just like Pavlovs dogs) crowded around him. He started to run away so I took the crackers from him.

That was when I got bit by a deer…on my butt.

They are pretty tame animals though and it was more a nibble than anything else. But I was covered in some deer slobber by the end of passing out all my crackers. Kagawa-san kept saying how scared he was but he was laughing too, so I think he enjoyed it.

After Todaiji we got some lunch. I was going to order curry udon but then decided spicy soup plus a cold/runny nose in front of your supervisor was not the best idea ever.

The we got a present for our colleagues who were at the office. We got, at Kagawa-sans suggestion, deer poop…chocolates meant to look like deer poop. Ha.

Then we walked up to the meeting location. Luckily a couple of CIRs I knew were there. Ian from the Kyoto office was there so we got to catch up on a few things.

During the actual training we were split into groups to discuss our opinions and issues. I was lucky because a friend of mine from Wash U was in my group. I think he and I are the only 2 CIRs from Wash U right now….but I’m not sure. He happens to live in Nara.

During the discussion one of the topics we discussed was getting NEW people to join our events, rather than always having the same people attending. We talked about using the Japanese obsession with all things CUTE and creating little characters (see Hikonyan, or even just Hello Kitty). So one of the guys in my group, a 4th year who seemed very uninterested in attending this conference, decided to draw a character for my town…Kame-Lincoln (why Lincoln, I have no idea…possibly because Lincoln is popular right now because he was just named one of the best presidents in history, or his birthday or the comparisons to Obama, or cuz this kid was crazy). Now in Japanese Kame means Turtle (which is why I often refer to Kame-oka as Turtle Hill (oka= hill).

So the mascot, if you can imagine, was a small turtle with a beard and top hat.

He drew this on our presentation paper and presented to the entire group, including my supervisor (who apparently thought it was pretty funny…either that or he was amused by just how embarrassed I got).

In the next group we discussed problems in our office. I learned that I am really quite well off compared to others. I have a lot of responsibility and am always pretty busy. I have enough projects to keep me busy even when I have no actual current assignments. Most of the CIRs I talked to said they spent most of their time studying….

The Japanese woman in our group decided to draw a Kame-Lincoln on this new page as well…Only the beard was a mustache that made it look like Kame-Hitler…which I thought was hilarious.

After it was all done we hopped on the special express and got home early, which was good because I was getting sick and also had to make over 150 chocolate covered strawberries that night. When talking about the strawberries, I mentioned that I preferred apples…and Kagawa-san asked me if we had apples in America. I kind of chuckled and said yes…yes we do have apples in America.

I actually had a pretty good time making the strawberries, though I went through almost 20 bars of Meiji Chocolate (Japan’s version of Hershey’s?) and had to go to the store halfway through to buy about 10 more (making the check out lady look at me strange and also asked if it was for my boyfriend….since it was so close to Valentines Day). While I wanted to ask her why I would buy my boyfriend like 10 bars of Hershey’s grade chocolate for Valentines Day…I instead just said it was for work and no, I would not be eating it all alone. Every flat surface of my apartment was covered in strawberries.